As pointed out on Naver, instead of simply cream puffs, youth are now splattering each other with various combinations of flour, mayonnaise, tea, ketchup, tomatoes, tofu, raw eggs, Coca-Cola, orange juice, birthday cake, habanero sauce and, um, even lube. Here are some birthday celebrations (via Twitter and Naver):

For example, this birthday boy was covered in 500 grams of flour, 200 grams of mayo, 100 grams of ketchup, a teaspoon of yogurt, a can of beer, a package of tofu, and an egg.

This one is worse: Margarine, wasabi, whole tomatoes, a large serving of Japanese beef stew, soybean flower, and katsuobushi (dried tuna flakes). Blergh.

"This is repulsive," wrote one commenter on 2ch, Japan's largest bulletin board. "I don't even want to think of them as a Japanese person like me." Another added, "These people are completely nuts." 2ch commenters also wondered what the appeal of these birthday celebrations were.

Not all Japanese teens celebrate birthdays this way, so don't think that. And, of course, most Japanese people think this kind of thing is not only disgusting, but incredibly wasteful. From a young age, parents teach their kids in Japan to clean their plates and eat every grain of rice. This sort of behavior flies right in the face of that.